1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a surface fastener having a stabilized configuration formed of foundation cloth the rear face of which is not required to be back-coated with thermoplastic resin.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a so-called back-coating method has been well known to fasten an engaging element yarn to a foundation cloth by coating an entire rear face of the foundation cloth with resin such as polyester base resin, polyurethane base resin and the like. Consequently, the engaging element yarn woven into the foundation cloth woven of warp yarn and weft yarn is fastened to the foundation cloth firmly, so that a tough surface fastener is produced. This method has been disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 11-244010.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-289312 has disclosed another method. According to this method, as shown in FIG. 11, the foundation cloth of the surface fastener is woven with a double weaving structure and then, resin such as polyester base resin, polyamide base resin, polyacrylic base resin and polyurethane base resin is soaked between front foundation cloth 4xe2x80x2 and rear foundation cloth 5xe2x80x2. Alternatively, melted resin is applied for coating the rear foundation cloth 5xe2x80x2 of the double cloths, and by putting a pressure with an appropriate means, the melted resin is soaked into the front foundation cloth 4xe2x80x2 to form a thick foundation cloth by hardening it with heat.
Because resin such as polyester base resin and polyurethane base resin is applied to an entire rear face of the woven foundation cloth, the rear face of the foundation cloth of the surface fastener is stiffened, so that the aforementioned surface fastener, which is back-coated, provides a poor textual feeling.
Further, in a surface fastener shown in FIG. 11, melted resin fluid is soaked from the rear foundation cloth 5xe2x80x2 of the double-weaving structure composed of the front foundation cloth 4xe2x80x2 and the rear foundation cloth 5xe2x80x2 and a pressure is putted, so that the resin fluid is soaked into the front foundation cloth 4xe2x80x2. In this case, although the rear foundation cloth 5xe2x80x2 is woven with a rough weaving density, it is difficult to make the resin fluid permeate sufficiently up to the front foundation cloth 4xe2x80x2 and therefore, it is difficult to finish an excellent quality surface fastener in which the front foundation cloth 4xe2x80x2 and the rear foundation cloth 5xe2x80x2 are integrated firmly. Further, because an additional process step for making the melted resin fluid permeate and hardening it by heat is necessary, it takes a long time for production and an additional troublesome process must be carried out.
The present invention has been achieved in views of the above described problems. An object of the invention is to provide a surface fastener made of double cloths in which front foundation cloth and rear foundation cloth are integrated firmly through their opposing faces and a root or a trunk portion of a engaging element is fixed, thereby making it possible to produce an excellent quality surface fastener securing an excellent tactual feeling and having a double weaving structure with which can be produced more easily than the conventional product.
Another object of the invention is to provide a surface fastener which can be applied to various double cloths easily and produced easily with an excellent quality having a double weaving structure.
And another object of the invention is to provide a surface fastener in which a thermal melting yarn disposed in the double cloths can be held in a stabilized condition so that the front foundation cloth and the rear foundation cloth are welded together firmly and further, the front foundation cloth and the rear foundation cloth are fixed firmly with a binding yarn, thereby ensuring an excellent quality.
Also another object of the invention is to provide an excellent quality surface fastener in which the engaging element yarn is disposed on one or both of the front foundation cloth and the rear foundation cloth of the double cloths, and the engaging element is formed such that it is implanted so as to be protruded from the surface of the surface fastener and a root or a trunk portion of the engaging element is fixed firmly.
To achieve the above object, according to the main aspect of the invention, in double cloths composed of front foundation cloth and rear foundation cloth, an engaging element yarn for forming a loop-like or hook-like engaging element of a surface fastener is woven into the front foundation cloth or the rear foundation cloth, and the loop-like engaging element or the hook-like engaging element is implanted so as to be protruded from the surface of the woven face. Then, a thermal melting yarn having a lower melting point than warp yarn and weft yarn composing the foundation cloths and and the engaging element yarn is inserted and woven so as to intervene between the front foundation cloth and the rear foundation cloth and by melting the thermal melting yarn by heating, the front foundation cloth and the rear foundation cloth are welded together integrally through their inner faces and the engaging element is fixed firmly.
Preferably, the double cloths are formed with hollow cloths and the thermal melting yarn is disposed longitudinally so as to be inserted and intervene in the hollow cloths.
Alternatively, the double cloths are formed with stitched double cloths, in which the front foundation cloth and the rear foundation cloth are bound together, and the thermal melting yarn is disposed so as to be inserted and intervene between the front foundation cloth and the rear foundation cloth.
Preferably, the front foundation cloth and the rear foundation cloth of the double cloths are bound together by the binding yarn disposed longitudinally and the binding yarn is disposed so as to intervene between the engaging element yarns woven longitudinally in the front and rear foundation cloths.
Further preferably, the binding yarn for binding the front foundation cloth and the rear foundation cloth of the double cloths binds the front foundation cloth with the rear foundation cloth longitudinally at a predetermined interval.
Still further, the engaging element yarn for forming the engaging element is woven into the front foundation cloth of the double cloths such that the engaging element is implanted so as to be protruded from the surface thereof.
Alternatively, the engaging element yarn for forming the engaging element is woven into the rear foundation cloth of the double cloths such that the engaging element is implanted so as to be protruded from the surface of the front foundation cloth, but not the rear foundation cloth.
Alternatively, the engaging element yarn for forming the engaging element is woven into the front foundation cloth and the rear foundation cloth of the double cloths fabric such that the engaging elements are respectively implanted so as to be protruded outward from the surfaces of the front foundation cloth and the rear foundation cloth.